Volume 46 - No. 37
September 15, 2016
by Friedrich Gomez
Celebrated American film and stage actor, Hal Holbrook, has strong feelings about political correctness: “I hate it. It causes us to lie silently instead of saying what we think.”
P tica Polit tic cal a
He is not alone.
CO CO ORREC OR RREC RREC CTNE CT C CTNES TNE ES E SS S S
Like it or not, political correctness deeply involves you, and most other sentient beings breathing air. If you disagree, try saying politically-incorrect words and phrases at your workplace and see how long you stay actively employed. And become a social pariah.
The concept of political correctness has been around forever. It just had different names and phraseology, such as ‘polite speech’ within a ‘polite society’ and having a ‘civil tongue.’ Today, political correctness is broadly defined as: “Language, behavior, and other measures, which do not offend, insult, or discriminate against any specific group of people in society.”
When grandpa was growing up he often referred to the homeless as “tramps,” and sanitation engineers as “garbage men” and people with disabilities as “handicapped.” Today, such toxic pronouns and adjectives carry explosive reprisals for any user, whether they intended to insult or not. What initially started out as a good idea for peaceful harmony among our species – somehow, somewhere along the way – got out of control. At least that is the growing consensus among people in the world today. Political correctness, aka PC, is one of the hottest topics embracing not only these United States of America, but the world at large.
Internationally-popular English movie actor, comedian, and film producer, John Cleese, states, “It started as a half-way decent idea and then it goes completely wrong and is taken ad absurdum.”
For many, Cleese certainly makes a valid point. Politically-correct guidelines have caused many to walk on egg shells as it continues to climb upward, reaching new political heights and seats of power. For example, the European Parliament recently introduced new proposals to actually outlaw usage of any titles which openly and arbitrarily identify a woman’s marital status, without her permission, such as ‘Miss’ and ‘Mrs.’ It also means that the French words ‘Madame’ and ‘Mademoiselle,’ the German ‘Frau’ and ‘Fraulein,’ and the The Paper - 760.747.7119
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Is Itt Getting G Out of Conttrool? Spanish ‘Senora’ and ‘Senorita’ would, likewise, be banned from usage among members of the European Parliament. According to the European Parliament spokesperson (never ‘spokesman’): “These guidelines are in favor of ‘Gender Neutral’ language.”
Meanwhile, in Great Britain, the BBC television network has officially dropped the use of the terms ‘Before Christ’ (BC) and ‘Anno Domini (AD) on one of their programs and decided that the new replacement terms ‘Before Common Era’ and ‘Common Era’ are more appropriate. And also less offensive to the various atheist groups which had made orchestrated complaints.
Some major stores across the United States have already supplanted “Merry Christmas” with the more generic “Happy Holidays” so as to not offend any opposing religious or non-religious beliefs.
As society evolves, so do attached social values regarding such combustible topics as sex, race, genderneutral terminology, ethnic profiling, transgender and gay rights, right down to the PC counterpoints and
national controversy over flying the Confederate flag in America today. The Confederate flag PC controversy across the United States was so intense that it forced many major retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, to jump overboard – derriere over teakettle – in abandoning sales of the Confederate battle flag, also known as the “Southern Cross.” In the event that you may have been on another planet when all this controversy took place, the Confederate flag unfurled incendiary discussions of “Southern pride” vs. horrific remembrance of human slavery and discrimination.
Though the Confederate flag controversy may have been a valid arena for debate, this is not always the case. Occasionally, the banner of political correctness can enter the arena of excessive, over-correctness. At least, that is the opinion of many. For example, the University of New Hampshire issued a “University Language Guide,” which stated that the word “American” was “problematic.” Why? Well, the university’s official “Bias-Free Language Guide” said that the word “American” is offensive because it does not recognize South America and, therefore: “Assumes that
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the U.S. is the only country inside these two continents.”
In his New York Times best-selling book, popular comic and illustrious “Saturday Night Live” alumnus, Dennis Miller, explodes on political correction: “We’re all supposed to zip through life like some huge societal squadron of Blue Angels, flying six inches off each other’s taste wing, never ever deviating even one angstrom.”
Dennis Miller’s PC rant helped make his book a national best-seller, which says a lot about the pulse of America today. Much of America agrees with him. Miller then serves up fair warning to his vast readership: “Well, folks, there are a lot of different aircraft careening through the social stratosphere, and we better start working out some respectfully independent glide paths right now, or it’s gonna start getting really messy . . .” (“Dennis Miller, The Rants” book, Amazon.com) For a lot of people, it has already ‘gotten really messy.’ Such prevalent, worldwide occurrences manifesting political correctness on television, newspapers, political seats of power, university campuses, and everyday living, have